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New Jersey NYC Subway Transit Adventures

Finally Finishing NJT North Riding out to Hackettstown via the Montclair-Boonton Line out Morristown Line back aboard Metro-North Comet Vs

I’m determined to finally get out to Hackettstown, the one part of NJT Rail I haven’t ridden except for the Atlantic City Line that will have to be a much larger adventure of a trip another time. I decide to ask Robbie my friend that I visited in Rhode Island and went on the Shore Line East adventure last week if he want’s to join me for a day that will be mostly train riding, less actual rail fanning since NJT’s fares make photo stops extremely expensive when your riding out to distant fare zones and they max out.

The day doesn’t start out too well, Robbie’s late and I’m on time. We don’t tap into the World Trade Center Station until 12:45 and a train doesn’t show up until 12:58. PATHVision says the next train is scheduled to leave at 1:02, we finally leave at 1:05. Totally ridiculous, who knew midday PATH Service was so bad?

We get to Journal Square at 1:15. Turns out there single tracking and we take the New York-bound track through the Meadowlands. We then seem to be entering the yard on the opposite track. We then keep switching into the yard, beyond the fence. We don’t stop but go through a small building (maybe the car wash?) and then stop on the normal New York-bound platform at Harrison at 1:26. No train passes us going in the other direction in this complex-yard move.

We arrive on the normal New York-bound platform at Newark-Penn Station 1:38. It’s total mayhem leaving the platform with a crowded staircase that is not designed for the hoards of passengers leaving path. We walk downstairs and to the Newark City Subway(3 Photos). We have enough time to get to Watsessing but not enough for any photo stops.

We’re out of the tunnel portal at 1:41 on this modernized steetcar turned light rail. Going into Bloomfield there is an abandoned ramp. The platform is under construction with level boarding getting added. I think this project will make the stations ADA Accessible. Branch Brook Park has what looks like a new side platform. At Branch Brook Park it becomes slower as we stop at each street intersection. There clearly isn’t signal priority. I’ve only been out here once before and walked between some of the stations. We pull into Grove Street at 2:00.

We walk over to Watsessing Avenue(13 Photos) getting there at 2:10 where single tracking is currently taking place with an old wooden sign blocking off the staircase down to the Newark. We buy our $9 tickets (such a deal but not saving us any money, the $9 fare is from Newark-Broad Street too, it’s worth the $1.50 to get another photo stop today and so I can finally ride the entire Newark City Subway) out to Hackettstown from the TVM that wasn’t there the other time I’ve visited. We go down to the one open platform  photograph a long 9 car MLV MidTown Direct train before ours comes in, a GP40 leading three Metro-North Comet Vs, its length is a total contrast to that Midtown Direct train. Our tickets are punched to Dover before we leave the station. 2 minutes late at 2:24.

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  • 2:26 – Stop at Bloomfield.
  • 2:28 – Come into Glen Ridge, the neat arched tunnel and neat canopy that covers more than the platform. We slowly go trough the woods. I notice an old wooden catenary pole holding up some lines I didn’t realize still existed.
  • 2:31 – Bay Street with its large parking garage. We then enter the New Montclair Connection and pass the DeCamp Bus depot.
  • 2:34 – Stop at Walnut Street. Now on what I think is jointed rail from the clicky-clack but a new catenrar system.
  • 2:36– Watchung Avenue, the edge of the platform looks as decrepit as ever.
  • 2:39 – Stop at Upper Montclair with its new Restaurant depot after the original one burned down.
  • 2:41 – Mountain Avenue with the depot that is a rental residence but still has a waiting room.
  • 2:43 – Stop at Montclair Heights with its wooden mini-high platform.
  • 2:46 – Stop at Montclair State University. We wait and are clearly switching dispatchers. We leave at 2:47.
  • 2:48 – Pass the yard and then Great Notch abandoned. I switch and sit on the right side that I know will be more interesting. We cross a construction site making our first good speed of the day.
  • 2:51 – Stop at Little Falls, the parking lot is quite crowded.
  • 2:53 – Cross a river and then highways including I-80.
  • 2:55 – Come into the very full parking lot at Wayne-Route 23. We close the doors 2 minutes early before waiting to pull out at 2:57 on time.

We leave and start going trough the open cut that wasn’t too decent a walk. We past the industry I remember walking by and over a grade-crossing into Mountain View arriving at 2:59. It’s parking lot isn’t nearly as crowded. We’re on time, I’m not worried about are connection to get out finally go all the way out to Hackettstown! We speed up going over a bridge across a creek that once had two tracks and past the fields the last time I walked.

3:02 – Arrive in Lincoln Park on the outside track, entering slowly to align with the concrete boarding areas. The line becomes single track again. We speed up through houses and trees. I see the road I remember trying to photograph a passing train from.

3:06 – Arrive in Towaco see some construction working on the Transit Oriented Development. The conductor comes to flip seats that lack passengers. This happened on this train the last time I took it.
We pass houses and go over overpasses and cross I-287, New York’s beltway and go through trees. There overpasses with evidence on a second track. We pass a Shopping Plaza with an A&P and come info Boonton. We have the end of our car to ourselves.

We pass the old station turned nightclub and the train empties out. We leave at 3:15. We then pass a bunch of abandoned cars as I’m at the ready trying to get photos. I notice one is Hickery Creek. It was at the Parade of Trains Event in Grand Central.
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At 3:18 – Come into Mountain Lakes we barely stop the parking lot has just a couple of cars and there is clearly no business. Cross over some water and pass houses through the trees. I notice a siding into a lumber yard.

We stop in Denville at 3:22 and someone dishes across the split station to board our train. We switch onto the Morristown Main Line and pass the abandoned General Box. We go along pass and one of the lakes, then a MidTown Direct train with its MLVs going the other direction. We pass more industry with rail yard access as we approach Dover. Then the train yard.
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We arrive in Dover at 3:29. We do a quick walk and I find out the waiting room closes at 12:30 on weekdays, 2:30 on weekends since it has a weekend shift. I also notice that the north track can clearly retract to allow wider freight trains to pass the modern high-level platform. Our connection arrives early at 3:39. It’s a longer diesel train led by a GP40, of Comet Vs I notice the last cab car is also a Metro-North owned one and we board that. Hence the title of this post! The conductor screams Hackettstown as we board. We leave at 3:42 on time, passing our terminating train set still sitting north of the station. A couple other people board with us, one doesn’t have a ticket. The conductor is nice to a man not charging the fee saying he’ll not charge him this time marking that the machine is broken and telling the passenger that the company (New Jersey Transit) no longer considers I don’t have time a valid excuse for not having a ticket and that conductors are to always charge the $5 surcharge. He walks through the train flipping seats.

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3:48 – Stop at Mount Arlington, a modern park & ride station with a high-level platform that doesn’t look like it raises for freight. We pass a sanitation garage and continue into the trees.
3:52 – We switch onto the outside track before stopping at Lake Hopatcong to let one person off. We slowly leave and I enter the only stretch of track except the Atlantic City Line that I haven’t ridden. We leave and pass
We leave pass some Arrow Cars on a scrap line and come to a stop in the yard with some MLVs that lack a locomotive. A bunch of employees board our car. The yard has some extra space and clearly a warehouse where trucks used for maintenance are stores

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Come to a stop in Netcog at 3:58. It has a nice brick station house. Don’t see any signs about hours. We leave gathering speed going through trees and under I-80. We pass a wetland and a pond with fountains. Then an office park with a Fed-Ex distribution center. We slowly pass some NJT trucks.

We stop at Mount Olive with two shelters and mini-high platform at 4:04 and go back into woods, past Olive interlocking. We regain speed and I can maybe make out I-80 through the trees, then a lake. There grade crossings but not much else.

  • 4:08 – Pass an abandoned mine of some sort as we curve south through trees. We pass a couple buildings , a small hospital and continue through trees.
  • 4:12 – See a solar farm and slow down, we’re coming into the town of Hackettstown. We slowly enter town passing in front of houses that require crossing tracks.
  • 4:14 – At see end ATC and we arrive in Hackettstown. I hear breaks getting allied and we waken through to get off, not using the high-level platform.

We spend the layover getting some photos of the station with a relatively small parking lot on the western edge of this little town and go for a walk around to Main Street. The platform is low-level with a wooden mini-high that I notice can retract to allow a wider freight train to pass through the station. I can’t believe I’ve finally ridden every inch of New Jersey Transit, and its just makes me realize more that I need to head out to Atlantic City.

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We re-board the train through the same only open door we got off at now sitting in the second Comet from the Front. At 4:49 I Here the double beep and slowly leave for our two hour ride on this train to Hoboken. We pass industry some small houses and the solar farm gathering speed and going into the woods

  • 4:54 – Go over little flowing stream and follow this river. There is a sign for Saxon Falls and then see a lake off in the distance. We go along a rock cut and back into the trees.
  • 4:59 – Mt. Olive Statoin, the simple platform with a mini-high is extremely simple. I only see one sign! Then we pass the Fed-Ex facility and exurban office parks with fountains. Only one passenger boards our train at Mt. Olive, clearly no employees commute by NJT rail. This would be the perfect train to take at 5:00pm.
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  • 5:03 – Under I-80, we’ll cross it at least once more.
  • 5:04 – Pull into Netcong, I wish I knew the depots hours. A half-dozen people board. I see a time on a door but can’t read it!
  • 5:07 – Get to the edge of the yard as the ROW widens. First pass Roxbury. We stop for a bunch of employees at their shelter. Some of these We are out of the yard at 5:10 and it becomes clear inside track at Lake Hopatcong for trains going through platform tracks for trains terminating.
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  • 5:12 – Stop at Lake Hopatcong for what is clearly a crew of I assume day laborers and a few others. We go under what could be the first road of the trip.
  • 5:14 – Under I-80 again and start running parallel to it.
  • We stop at Mount Arlington with its two modem high-level platforms and I-80 behind it at 5:16.
  • 5:20 – Another pond with a man made fountain in the middle of it. Then one that looks more real
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At 5:23 the catenary that well be running under all the way to Hoboken begins as we pull into Dover, quite a few people get off. More get on. There is a surprising amount of intermediate travel between Hackettstown and Dover.

We leave at 5:24 and pass the electrified NJT train yard and has a Norfolk Southern Locomotive and Conrail Caboose inside it. I notice the ROW here once had three or four tracks with a large van between the existing tracks and edges of the original 1930s catenary beams. We follow a lake, I see MP-35.
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  • 5:32 – Stop in Denville at the opposite platform from where we stopped going the other direction via the Montclair-Boonton Line
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  • 5:34 – Stop at Mount Tabor for no one, the shelter now has the required TVM.
  • We see a deer off in the distance. Then pass a train of three Arrow cars going the other way.
  • 5:41 – Stop at Morris Plains. I hear the conductor scream hurry up at someone buying a ticket.
  • 5:43 – Pass a siding curving off somewhere and a single level Midtown Direct train going the other way.
  • 5:44 – Baker (siding).
  • 5:45 – Morristown with elevators and mini-high platforms. I notice the waiting room is until 2:00pm looking out the window. A passenger is tapping the window trying to get the attention of someone waiting on the opposite platform.
  • 5:47 – Cross over I-287. I notice the rail trail along the line.
  • 5:49 – Stop at Convent Station. A nice shelter says its open until 8:00pm and the station itself is open that late! I notice the little signs. We have earphone pollution behind us, we keep following the rail trail.
  • 5:52 – The trail peters out.
  • 5:53 – Stop at Madison, the ticket office closes at 9:00, the waiting room is open until 1:30.
  • 5:56 – Pass a northbound diesel.
  • 5:57  – Stop at Chatham, the signs in the windows say the waiting room is open until 1:30pm.
  • 6:01 – I notice an overgrown track and then the Summit Wall track begins and we pass another train.

We take the middle track into Summit and arrive at 6:04 with the middle door used for just the third time on this trip. We leave at 6:05 and begin the first semi-express portion of today’s trip.
We run above the scenic hill and get back to suburban houses.

  • 6:08 – A train that seems very short to be a midtown direct passes with a pantograph up. I wonder if its a dual-mode?
  • 6:09 – Bypass Short Hills
  • 6:10 – Pass an empty parking garage as I hear the crew dropping traps as we stop at Millburn. The stations parking is plenty full. The line becomes three tracks.
  • 6:13 – An Arrow III train passes the other way.
  • 6:14 – Maplewood. We arrive as MLVs of a rush hour Midtown Direct train leaves on the middle track. We leave at 6:16 – delayed by a door issue.
  • 6:18 – South Orange. We leave passing a crowded outdoor swimming poll and recreation complex.
  • 6:21 – Bypass Mountain Station as a train passes on the middle track.
  • 6:22 – Highland Avenue and over I-280 that we will follow all the way into Newark.
  • 6:24 – Orange. Then a diesel train pulled by a F40PH.
  • 6:26 – See the steeples as we pull into Brick Church with an express train passing on the opposite track. The Newark seat checks get collected I hear the traps banging closed.
  • 6:28 – Bypass East Orange and go over the Garden State Parkway.
  • 6:29 – Pass an abandoned yellow line, Grove Street.
  • 6:30 – Another abandoned platform, Roseville Avenue and merge back with the Montclair Line as a train slowly curves onto that branch.
  • 6:31 – Pass a train on the middle track as most of the car empties as we enter Newark-Broad Street. We stop at 6:32. Some people get on for Hoboken. We leave at 6:33 and our seat checks get collected.
  • The line becomes two tracks again (from 3) at Broad and we cross the river, ancient train going the other way.
  • 6:35 – The former Harrison Station with abandoned staircases as we follow I-280.
  • 6:37 – Get to Kearny and see Path we go under the NEC and I add the connecting tracks that are the Waterfront Connection.
  • 6:39 – We get a nice view of the Meadowland Maintenance Facility, the heart of New Jersey Transit where their idiot supervisors left rolling stock that got flooded during Superstorm Sandy, we also make a stop at the most comprehensive set of shelters for an employee stop (Hillside Facility on the LIRR is still much more impressive)
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  • 6:42 – Cross the Hackensack and then the scrap yard of the day, almost missed one!2013-08-27.15-42-10
  • 6:43 – Enter the tunnels going over other abandoned tunnels formerly used by the Erie Railroad into their terminal.
  • 6:45 – Emerge and go over the Newark Light rail passing Hoboken Yard.
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We arrive in Hoboken Terminal(7 Photos) at 6:48 on Track 17, the far track that has its own canopy and isn’t under the Bush Train shed. I have to walk into the terminal and check on the condition of the station. Most of it is still being reconstruction 10 months after Superstorm Sandy but there is one improvement, the restrooms have reopened so there is no longer the Port-a-Potty festival outside the station’s street entrance.
 

We pass the now reopened elevator to the Hoboken PATH Station(4 Photos)

It’s another adventure on PATH, grabbing a timetable were at the time when service transitions from every 5 minutes (rush hour) to every 10 minutes on the HOB-33rd Line. A train arrives, discharges its passengers and closes its doors, clearly running light to the train yard. Eventually our train leaves we take it to 9th Street. We walk the couple blocks down to West 4th Street and get some last R160 C train photos before their sent back to the J.

The A train comes and I’m home just before 8:00 just a little over an hour after arriving in Hoboken.